Rain

Rain

On the walk back, it started to rain.

It was not a heavy deluge, as we usually encounter in our part of the world during the monsoons, it was not a light drizzle either, that one could care to not pay any attention to. The steady stream of water soaked us to the skin in a matter of minutes. Wet, shivering, teeth chattering, we trudged back along the hilly terrain, clutching each other's arms, and huddling together for warmth. The woods on both sides of the road looked fresh and green, newly washed! The smell of the wet soil mingled with the smell of the not-so-distant sea, we were on earth, but we were also in heaven.

We soon came back to the sea, and the hotel on its shores. It was still raining as hard. Through the vertical sheets of water, the sea loked strangely calm and inviting. She agreed that we could hardly be any wetter or colder than we already were! Still in each other's arms, we walked into the sea!

The greenish-blue carpet of still water was warm and comforting as we stepped in. She was afraid to go too far in. She doesn't know how to swim, and it took all my persuasive skills to walk in till we reached waist-deep water. There we sat, up to our necks under the calm sparkling surface, looking at each other, speaking softly into each others ears and laughing occasionally as one or the other would lose footing and fall. The steady torrent splashed continuously on the shimmering surface. Time was an illussion. The rest of the world was an illussion. There were only two lone, content souls in the middle of a wide green bay, and there the universe ended.

Paradise is there on earth and we had found ours. It was the perfect ending to the brief sojourn, before we were to make it back to the bustle of city life, to the hectic schedule of daily activities.